(note: this article from the GAO interested me, because I applied for Voc-Rehab in 1994, and it took until 2013 for VA to begin my evaluation for assistance under the program.)
About half of
the almost 17,000 veterans who entered the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA)
Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (VR&E) program in fiscal year 2003
and received employment-related services were placed in suitable jobs,
one-third left the program, and most of the others are still participating. It
often took veterans 6 years or more to achieve success, due in part to veterans
often leaving the program temporarily. Interviews with VR&E staff and
participants and administrative data GAO reviewed suggest veterans face
numerous challenges that affect their ability to obtain employment, especially
related to mental health conditions, working with multiple VR&E counselors
over time, and civilian employers' limited understanding of military work
experience.
VA has taken
steps to improve VR&E performance management, workload management, and
staff training, but weaknesses remain. With regard to performance management,
VA has an ongoing initiative to revise its approach for measuring
rehabilitation success at the individual employee, regional, and national
levels. However, the new approach VA is considering for employees reflects only
the number, not the rate of successful outcomes, and therefore would not
provide sufficient context for understanding program success. VA has not yet
developed its new approaches for assessing rehabilitation success regionally
and nationally. Also, VA began surveying participants' satisfaction with the
program and plans to use the results to manage performance; while VA has
generally followed good survey design practices, the agency has not fully
assessed the reliability of early customer satisfaction results. In terms of
workload management, VA has taken steps to reduce paperwork burdens on regional
offices. However, several offices still reported heavy workloads and noted that
VA's formula for allocating staff among offices does not consider other staff
duties affecting workloads, such as education counseling. In addition, VA has
not studied the relative effectiveness and efficiency of regional offices'
approaches for assigning staff to manage workloads. Finally, with respect to
training, VA has addressed redundancy and most gaps in training for VR&E
staff, but gaps remain in the areas of job placement assistance and workplace
accommodations.
Why GAO Did This Study
Veterans with
disabilities face special challenges to finding employment-- resulting, for
example, from the veterans' physical or mental health, or negative attitudes or
stereotypes on the part of some employers. VA's VR&E program aims to help
veterans with disabilities obtain and maintain suitable employment--compatible
with their disabilities--through services such as training and job search
assistance. The VOW to Hire Heroes Act of 2011 directed GAO to review the
program. GAO examined (1) the outcomes for veterans seeking employment through
the program, and (2) the progress VA has made in addressing critical management
issues. GAO reviewed relevant laws, regulations, and guidance as well as recent
studies; reviewed various program management criteria; analyzed VA
administrative data on veterans who entered the program between fiscal years
2003 and 2012; interviewed staff at the VA central office and 8 regional
offices; interviewed a random but non generalizable sample of 17 program
participants; and analyzed data from a VA survey of participants.
What GAO Recommends
GAO
recommends that VA reflect success rates in revised performance measures,
ensure the reliability of its customer satisfaction survey results, re-visit
its staff allocation formula, study staff assignments, and close certain gaps
in its training for staff. In its comments, VA generally concurred with these
recommendations and noted steps it plans to take to address them.
For more
information, contact Daniel Bertoni (202) 512-7215 or bertonid@gao.gov
Status Legend:
·
Recommendations for Executive Action
Recommendation: In revisiting VA's formula for
allocating VR&E staff among the regional offices, the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs should direct the Under Secretary for Benefits to (a) assess the
inclusion of factors related to regional office performance and if warranted
remove them from the formula, and (b) assess the exclusion of any factor
related to the number of educational counseling cases in each regional office
and if warranted add such a factor.
Agency Affected: Department of Veterans Affairs
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the
agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated
information.
Recommendation: Consistent with generally accepted
survey practices and as warranted by survey response rates, the Secretary of
Veterans Affairs should direct the Under Secretary for Benefits to conduct
nonresponse analysis of the results of VA's ongoing Voice of the Veteran
customer satisfaction surveys.
Agency Affected: Department of Veterans Affairs
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the
agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated
information.
Recommendation: In any revised set of national and
regional performance measures for the VR&E program, the Secretary of
Veterans Affairs should direct the Under Secretary for Benefits to include
measures of (a) the proportion of program participants successfully
rehabilitated into employment, and (b) the proportion of participants who
obtain other benefits from VR&E services.
Agency Affected: Department of Veterans Affairs
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the
agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated
information.
Recommendation: The Secretary of Veterans Affairs
should direct the Under Secretary for Benefits to collect information on the
regional offices' approaches for managing their VR&E workloads, assess the
advantages and disadvantages of these approaches, and use the results of this
assessment to provide guidance to the offices on potential best practices or
options to consider.
Agency Affected: Department of Veterans Affairs
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the
agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated
information.
Recommendation: The Secretary of Veterans Affairs
should direct the Under Secretary for Benefits to develop new measures of
long-term employment that go beyond the minimum 60 days of post-placement
monitoring that is currently required. In developing measures, the Secretary of
Veterans Affairs should direct the Under Secretary for Benefits to consider the
feasibility of using results from planned post-closure surveys of veterans as a
data source.
Agency Affected: Department of Veterans Affairs
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the
agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated
information.
Recommendation: The Secretary of Veterans Affairs
should direct the Under Secretary for Benefits to provide additional training
to all individual vocational rehabilitation counselors on job placement
strategies and workplace accommodations, potentially as part of the effort to
develop a competency-based training approach.
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